We have waited in vain since 17th November for the camels, always promised but never appearing…and we still have no more prospect of seeing them than at the beginning. I am sorry to say that what we heard upon our arrival has been confirmed; the Arab tribes who alone manage the transport are discontented.
-Letter XVI, Korusko, 5th January 1844, Karl Richard Lepsius, Letters from Egypt
Lepsius was headed south on the Korusko road across the Bayuda and we were waiting in Binban for our dabouka to arrive off the Darb, down the river north just as the Missouri flows past Florissant. We might have crossed paths in mid-desert had we not been on the west bank and he on the east and a hundred fifty years earlier. We’d left our herd shy of the border and come up by ferry and Lepsius was on his way down to Meroe, Musawwarat, and Naqa. We had seen only one temple, Sulb, and that from the saddle.
Ahmad abd al-Majid drove us out of Binban where he told us to wait, for three days it so happened, on the ridge top from which we would see them coming from afar. When they did arrive, it was chaotic. They had to keep the dabouka moving fast and tight through the village streets on their way to the open ground. No time to greet the drovers before the herd was watered and fed. The men too needed food and water. Abd al-Majid brought them fresh gargeer, tomatim, and ‘aish baladi and poured Egyptian tea. Yes, content…finally to be off the Darb.